06 January 2014

Sic Transit Festis

I put up the tree on or about December 8, in conjunction with Rohatsu. I take it down on our about January 6, in conjunction with Epiphany. Today it came down, and so another holiday season comes to an end.

By nature I'm one of those folks that just eats this time up – the imagery, the wonder, the stillness, the acts of kindness large and small that surface all over the place. From the realization of someone like you and I who saw with utmost clarity the true nature of this world and our lives, to the manifestation of the seamless union of the absolute and the relative in flesh-and-blood no different at all from our own, I have no shortage of occasions to ponder and marvel at this life of ours. I'm almost embarrassed to count the number of times I've been moved to tears over the last month or so.

And why?

Celebrated is Shakyamuni's enlightenment, of course, but celebrated is ours as well. Celebrated is theophany in the baby of Bethlehem, but celebrated is the same in us as well.

I don't know, but I find that spending a little time with all of that makes me just that much more inclined to smile at our finitude, our all-too-humanness, our quirks and our missteps. Somehow, through the decorating and the baking and the gifting and the eating and the drinking and the family-ing and all the rest I'm reminded yet again of how wondrous each and every one of us is, warts and all.

It's bitter cold here tonight, and there's hurt of all kinds all over the place. May all be as warm as they can be. May all be at ease.